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Divination
and Ron Weasley unenthusiastically gaze into a crystal ball in Divination class]] Divination is a branch of magic - "Divination is one of the most imprecise branches of magic" - Minerva McGonagall that involves attempting to foresee the future, or gather insights into past, present and future events, through various rituals and tools. It is described as an inexact science, which requires certain mind and concentration techniques to improve one's sensibility and logical thinking, and to gain insight into various events, appearances, details, emotions and thoughts. Therefore, Divination might be related to Legilimency and possibly some aspects of wandlore. Divination is a more practical way to analyse and interpret a wizard's surroundings by logical thinking and sensibility of mind and body in comparison to Arithmancy, which focuses on calculating probabilities, magnitude, strength and effectiveness of magical forces in general including properties of numbers and their application. Human divination Witches and wizards who are born with the rare natural gift for prophecy are known as Seers, who can foresee the future with their Inner Eye. Non-Seers can learn divination methods and develop and gain various insights with them, but their success varies. Divination is taught as an elective subject from the third year on at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Divination has been practised since ancient times. The earliest known method of human fortune-telling is the product known in the West as Chinese Fortune Sticks. Learned wizards and witches seem to regard the practise of divination with scepticism. Hermione Granger once described it as "woolly" and "a lot of guesswork," Minerva McGonagall thought it was "one of the most imprecise branches of magic," and before he decided to take on Sybill Trelawney as Divination professor at Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore was inclined to scrap the subject altogether. Silver lime wands had a reputation for performing best for Seers and those skilled in Legilimency. Centaur divination teaching Divination class in 1996]] Centaurs have a way of practising divination distinct from that of humans, apparently mainly based around observing the movement of planets, moons, and stars, which they had been doing for centuries by 1996. , Chapter 27 It can take up to a decade for centaurs to understand what these celestial portents meant, and even then, the results were rarely precise. They may attempt to narrow their prediction of when an event will take place by burning certain herbs, such as sage and mallowsweet, and looking for various shapes and symbols in the fumes. Centaurs seem to have had a low opinion of human methods of divination. Firenze, who taught Divination at Hogwarts, described what "humans call fortune-telling" as "self-flattering nonsense," and voiced the belief that humans obsess over mundane, day-to-day predictions because they are "blinkered and fettered by the limitations of their kind." Known methods Known texts Xylomancy.png|''Xylomancy'' by Selina Sapworthy Future-lrg.png|''Unfogging the Future'' by Cassandra Vablatsky The Dream Oracle.png|''The Dream Oracle'' by Inigo Imago OmensOracles&TheGoat.png|''Omens, Oracles & the Goat'' by Bathilda Bagshot The_Predictions_of_Tycho_Dodonus.png|''The Predictions of Tycho Dodonus'' Death Omens, What to Do When You Know the Worst Is Coming.png|''Death Omens: What to Do When You Know the Worst is Coming'' Behind the scenes *In real life, is the practise of communing with supernatural forces to determine the future. Though dismissed by modern science as superstition, many cultures worldwide have practised or do practise some form of divination. As magic consists of supernatural forces, true Divination actually can be learned and achieved like the other magical arts, whether or not a wizard possesses the Inner Eye. *In film adaptation ''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'', Hermione Granger compares Divination to Ancient Runes, thinking the first a woolly subject and the second very fascinating, however in the novel she did the same but with Divination and Arithmancy. Appearances * - Hermione tells Harry that what he's saying sounds like "fortune-telling," which Professor McGonagall says is a very imprecise branch of magic. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Notes and references es:Adivinación fr:Divination (branche de la magie) pt-br:Adivinhação Divination